


Illumination

by Ghelik



Series: Life after the Mountain [16]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childbirth, F/M, Fluff, Love, Post-Mount Weather, Post-Season/Series 02, everything is nice and beautiful, unbetad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 17:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8409994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghelik/pseuds/Ghelik
Summary: For one tiny little moment, everything is perfect





	

It’s some sort of strange miracle that they manage to hide the pregnancy from everyone. Not that they’re actively trying to hide it, they just go to great lengths to not tell anyone. Emori wears baggy clothes and stays in their tent when she’s not working at Raven’s. He goes just to the kitchen and avoids spending time with anyone. Everyone is busy anyway, what with the preparations for winter and grounder ambassadors coming and going, and Murphy and Emori have a reputation of outsiders. Murphy hasn’t been the most accessible person since the last time he was kidnapped. Also, the gang still comes by to eat with them. Just not as often as they did, and usually, they just eat in Murphy and Emoris’ ‘backyard’. Which means that Emori’s always sitting around Murphy and they steer the conversation away from themselves when it looks like it might turn to them. By the end, only Raven has found out – which isn’t that strange, since Emori and Raven spend a lot of time together and Raven’s not a complete imbecile.

  
It’s also a small miracle that Emori’s labor starts during a party with enough noise to drown her pained screams out. Murphy is terrified the whole time, but there’s no one they can call for help, so he helps her undress and lean back on their cot. He runs around a little, fetching everything he can remember from his months of study: rags and water and shears.

  
Meanwhile, Emori is sweating and cursing in trig, throwing weak punches and kicks at Murphy every time he’s close enough. When he kneels between her legs and the real work begins he is both repulsed and fascinated. At first, there’s really not much for him to do other than awkwardly reach for her hand from where he is waiting for the baby to start peeking out. Emori squeezes so hard he’s sure she’ll break something.

 

He’s terrified.

 

Is it normal for there to be so much blood? For Emori to be in so much pain? Shouldn’t the baby be there already? How on earth is a human being supposed to come out of _there_?

 

Emori’s biting down on a weathered piece of leather, so her screams somewhat muffled moans. That noise plucks at his heartstrings. It’s a sound he doesn’t want to hear ever, ever, ever again. And he did this. This is his fault. He put her in this situation. If he had had an implant this would never have been an issue.

 

Murphy feels like crying. They shouldn’t have gone through with it. What if something goes wrong? What if this whole thing was a mistake? What if it’s not normal that there’s so much blood? What if the baby can’t come out? What if something’s wrong with the baby?

Nine months of nightmares are about to come true and he isn’t sure if he’s ready for it.

Hell.

Of course, he is sure! He’s most definitely not. He needs at least nine more months to prepare. There is so much stuff he doesn't know. So much he will do wrong.

  
The fingers of his free hand tremble as they draw soothing circles on the inside of her thigh. Emori gives his hand a softer squeeze to let him know she appreciates it.

Emori’s screams a rhythmic. That – according to his research, and he should have done a lot more research- is normal. She’s having contractions. Whenever they hit Emori’ll scream and squeeze like she wants to tear his hand off his arm.

 

When the little baby starts slipping out he has to let go of her to hold the head. He’s talking nonsense at somebody, but he isn’t sure if it’s at Emori, the baby or himself. And then, suddenly, he has the tiny, tiny, tiny human in his hands: covered in blood and mucus and still attached to her mother by the gross-looking umbilical cord.

  
It’s a baby girl. All wrinkly and screaming her lungs out, kicking her little legs and the oh so tiny fists!

 

Emori is talking, but he can’t hear her over the rush in his ears. For a second or twenty, the world stands still while he stares down at that writhing body.

  
He did this. Him. He’s a father. And this tiny slip of a human is his daughter. And she’s covered in filth, but she’s his.

 

Then the next second rolls in and he cuts the umbilical cord like he’s practiced half a million times on random vegetables and intestines in the kitchens. It feels like some sort of strange dream. The only thing that seems real is the baby. The placenta slips out with a repugnant wet splat and he picks it up and puts it to the side for later.

 

He kisses Emoris thigh before standing up and bringing their daughter – and he can’t get enough of those words- up to meet her mom.

Emori’s glowing, hair plastered to her brow, chest heaving.

  
When Murphy puts the baby in her arms Emori tries not to touch her with her bad hand. She inspects the tiny fists and feet and is crying by the end of it.

 

"She’s perfect," Emori whispers, voice full of awe.

 

Murphy watches them, sitting next to Emori, her bad hand in his. His heart must surely soon break out of his chest because it’s growing too much to fit in it.

Emori holds the baby for him to take and clean up. Her eyes are heavy.

 

"I’ll need to eat the placenta," she mumbles, her head falling back, "and she needs to be fed."

 

He nods, kisses her damp forehead. "Just sleep a little while I bathe her."

 

Murphy goes to clean his daughter. By the time he’s kneeled in front of the washbasin, Emori’s already asleep. The baby has stopped screaming and is blinking around with her pale blue-grey eyes. He washes every crease, the little fists, and feet, behind the ears and the nub of a nose. He can’t stop looking at her. He dries her with the softest rag he could find, which is still too coarse in comparison to the silky baby skin. He swats her in a tight bundle. When offered, she grasps his pinky in her fist. The fingers are so small the nails are practically invisible. Her head is soft, crowned by a dark tuft. Now that she’s calmed down a little, he can see the skin is a beautiful soft gold, like Emori’s. She doesn’t look much like anyone he knows. But he’s perfectly fine with that.

 

He stands there, completely paralyzed as she puts her free fist into her mouth. Eyes closing while she sucks on her own hand.  
Murphy isn’t sure how long he spends just looking down at his daughter. At some point, Emori stirs, but he can’t tear his eyes away.

 

"You look so cute with that baby," she tells him after a while. "Is she hungry?"

  
He blinks and then turns to his partner. She’s still glowing, still the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, still the mother of his baby.  
If he were to die this instant, he would die the happiest man alive.

 

Emori makes a grabby gesture and very reticently Murphy puts their child in her arms. When she tries to keep her bad hand away, he just grabs it and offers it to the baby. Her fingers wrap around one of the two pincer-like fingers. Emori gasps, but doesn’t say anything. He settles next to Emori, playing with the tiny feet. The fingers there are doll-like. He can’t stop marveling at everything that is that is her.

When Emori kisses him, it’s salty with tears and warm and squeezes his heart in a nearly painful way. He’s sure he’ll just die then and there.

  
They name her Ivy while she feeds enthusiastically on her mum and he’s frying placenta, which is something he never thought he’d do. And as he brings the cooked entrails over to Emori, he’s suddenly hit with the realization that something is fundamentally right with his life.

 

For a very brief instant, everything is perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Fast forward a few months. I may write some instances of Emoris' Pregnancy, but for now I want to play with my new toy :D Daddy!Murphy will not be always happy, but he at least got a break.  
> As always this was unbeta'd.  
> Thank you so much for reading.


End file.
